Founder of 'Asmaul Husna', 17 followers arrested by religious department

SEREMBAN - After three years of undercover work, Negeri Sembilan Islamic Religious Affairs Department (JHEAINS) raided a group leader of 'Asmaul Husna' dhikr group who was found to be still pursuing religious classes despite being declared illegal.

The department's Enforcement Division Operations Unit chief, Ahmad Zaki Hamzah said a 60-year-old woman called 'ummi' was arrested along with her 17 followers while delivering a 'lecture' on the teaching in Johol, Kuala Pilah, here.

"The teaching has been been declared haram (prohibited) by Negeri Sembilan Mufti Department as the teaching contradicts Sunnah Wal Jamaah.

"In fact, the woman were summoned by Jakim before and made a declaration of repentance, yet further spy and investigation found that they still resumed the teaching," he told reporters, here.

He said all those arrested were women aged between 20 and 60 years old, mostly housewives and live outside Negeri Sembilan and attended lectures held during the day.

"Based on intelligence, senior followers of this teaching recruited their followers through WhatsApp and Telegram by inviting women to attend the lectures.

"Actually, this teaching has many followers across the country and it is believed to be expanded to Indonesia following the discovery of a memorandum of understanding document with several religious schools (sekolah pondok) there," he said.

Meanwhile, the department's director Datuk Mohd Zaidi Ramli said the case is investigated under Section 52 of the Negeri Sembilan Syariah Criminal Enactment 1992 which is related to dubious teachings and Section 53 of the same enactment related to the offence of Teaching Religion Without Certification.

He also confirmed the arrest of 17 individuals for further investigation.

"I hope Muslims especially in Negeri Sembilan will be careful while following the knowledge delivered by any preacher or teacher and make sure that they have credentials so as not to deviate from the teachings of Islam," he said.

In 2021, Sinar Harian reported that the founder of the teaching said to have deviated from the practices of Sunnah Wal Jamaah had apologised to all Muslims for misleading teaching by Dr Wan Maseri Wan Mohd.